Hi from southern ontario

**Chard** · 06-17-2011, 18:13

Hi from downtown Toronto!!

I'll have to agree with the rest and say that the you'll need some good climbing grade 'biners. It's amazing the load they'll have to take and when you consider how unpleasant a sudden midnight drop onto the gound could be, erring on the side of strength is not a bad idea.

Snake skins are also a great way to go!

blademaster_j · 06-17-2011, 18:37

First I want to thank everyone for the warm reception, I've participated in many forums, this one so far is the best!

Brian, peaks climbing is just down the road so I may drop in and see, thanks for letting me know that mec is out of stock.

I went to outdoors oriented and they do not carry that much climbing equiptment and no rings..., so for a temporary solution I went to home hardware and got some steel rings. now I know they will probably rust, even if I treat them I'd still prefer stainless steel, I will in time seek them out. I tried the hitch shown in the video and it works great using the rings. for the time being I will test the caughlan binders.(carefully for now) and yes I believe you get what you pay for, but for now this may work as a temporary solution until I can upgrade to more reliable equiptment.

my first concern was getting my hennessey hammock to start with and grow from there. as I just got it and haven't tried it yet, no where to hang it, but I'll find something. especially before I take it out in the wild.

even with a cheap hanging solution, it's a start...
I will be concerned until I solve the recommended standard issues.
even mighty ships go down with substandard parts...
as the load needs to handle myself,sleeping bag and who knows what else.

I agree on all counts.

so again thank you all for your warm welcome!

till the next update, I'll hang in there....

Thanks everyone!

**Chard** · 06-17-2011, 18:48

I picked up some of the welded steel rings from Home Depot. After my first trip, they had already opened up and there was a 4mm gap...

Now, I'm a big dude, but I was amazed. I thought because they were welded they would be strong. Just more evidence of the tension hammocking puts on the suspension system.

blademaster_j · 06-17-2011, 19:35

chardpp, thanks for sharing that info, I believe experience is a great teacher and to not learn from experience of yourself or others is a recipie for disaster., I've seen rings split before so I can see it happening, but I don't want it happening when I can prevent it in the first place. I'm still building my gear so I have time to make adjustments. and yes the bump in the night had better not be me.

**Bubba** · 06-17-2011, 20:17

Until you get some climbing biners, instead of the Coughlan biners maybe get some of these from Canadian Tire or Home Depot. You can get heavier rated ones than the ones shown. The safe working load is probably around 30% of the actual breaking strength so they would be safer than the Coughlan's biners. They are heavier and have teeth on the gate but they are passable until you get better and lighterweight ones.

**BrianWillan** · 06-17-2011, 21:34

Blademaster_J

If you head down to a local park, I am sure you can find a pair of suitable trees or structure to test your hammock on. Your stock suspension with your hammock has a useable suspension with it. It is not the most easily adjusted, but with the tree straps and the suspension rope, using the Hennessey figure 8 lashing is a good way to start and for those Hennessy hammock owners that haven't discovered this place (shudder) yet, then it is still widely used.

Sooner or later your going to switch out your suspension to whoopie slings and from that point you will be all set.

Cheers

Brian

blademaster_j · 06-18-2011, 21:07

I've just finished sewing my homemade snakeskins and they work great. one alternative I thought of in hanging is tying one end to my mustangs spoiler and the other end to a tree, pics later... the park sounds great as soon as I can get out to one. but just an update that snakeskins are an essential, it's too bad they are not included with the initial purchase from MEC.... ah well.

**Bubba** · 06-18-2011, 22:11

Don't know how your spoiler is attached to your car but I have seen roof racks pulled out by people using them for one end of a hammock.

**keg** · 06-18-2011, 23:10

A quick link like this would also be usable.
http://www.cvfsupplycompany.com/haqulichreli.html
Should be able to get them cheap at any hardware store. I use them in my setup at home and they hold my 220ish pounds.